Mindfulness and The Flâneur

Having blogged about The Green Turtles of Ras Al Jinz last week, it is with amazement this week that I note the following:

"Around 1840 it was briefly fashionable to take turtles for a walk in the arcades. The flâneurs liked to have the turtles set the pace for them." Walter Benjamin in “Arcades Project”, a study of 19th century Parisian life.

The Flâneur: A Radical-Chic Icon by sketchbloom 

Viewed through a 21st century filter this might at first appear horrific, but understanding the accompanying vocabulary, background and concepts, and seeing with a 19th century perspective, our focus alters. 

Referring to a person who walks the city in order to experience it, Charles Baudelaire is said to have coined the term “flâneur” from the verb ‘flâner’, which means “to stroll” in French. 

In the 19th century, industrialization had brought with it many social and economic changes.  Many children of upper middle class families were given an income without having to work. They had no reason to hurry and so dawdling was in a sense encouraged. While many of these young people might have become cynical in their observations of urban living, others participated in it in order to fully observe. The flâneur was born.

The construction of the Paris Arcades in the early 19th century, encouraged this movement. Passageways through neighbourhoods were covered with glass roofs, creating an interior-exterior experience. Precursors of modern day malls, these arcades offered not only an escape from the hustle and bustle of street crowds and markets, but were also ideal environments for flâneurs.

The flâneur would stroll through these arcades, at home in these interior-exterior worlds.  Part of the crowd, but at the same time totally aloof from it, the flâneur would take in the sights and so experience the surrounding culture. Determined looking required a slow place and a turtle on a leash would enforce this!

Words always contain layers of potential meaning, and the flâneur offers us a new way of seeing the world.

“Flâneur is not limited to someone committing the physical act of peripatetic stroll in the Baudelairian sense, but can also include a ‘complete philosophical way of living and thinking’”.  Wikipedia 

As mindfulness gains in popularity, so too I believe, will the word “flâneur” make a 21st century comeback; this time with added connotations.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, often defines mindfulness as “moment by moment, non-judgmental awareness”. Whether the 19th century flaneur was non-judgmental or not is debatable, but when our “dilly-dallying” becomes conscious, we are certainly practicing mindfulness.

Are we able to sit or walk somewhere and merely observe without judging?

Are we able to be mall flâneurs? George Davis, @virtualDavis, encourages us to consider becoming a metro flâneur!

Are we able to watch our own inner landscapes with detached observation?

To what extent are we able to view our surroundings with the boundaries between interior and exterior dismantled?

When we access the virtual highways, where access to information is rapid, do we ever stop to recollect that there are many others present online at any given moment, simply looking? 

Are we willing to slow down and not retweet without reading the linked content first?

Speed, whether online or offline, is a characteristic of the modern world. The flâneur reminds us to set the pace of our own lives.

Cast as a character in the 21st century drama of life, the flâneur thus begins to play the role of consciousness.

We hopefully won’t leash a turtle, but we can remember that found in the mythology of most cultures, the turtle is often linked to creation and thereby creativity. A creature of both land and sea, the turtle encourages an attitude of adapting and flourishing regardless of environment. 

Mindfulness offers us a key.

The Green Turtles of Ras Al Jinz

Situated on the coast of Oman, at the eastern most tip of the Arabian peninsula, is a remote spot called Ras Al Jinz. With nothing more than a tiny ecotourist resort at a reasonable distance from its beaches, Ras Al Jinz is one of the birthplaces of the endangered Green Sea Turtle. 

Every year, about 10 000 awe inspiring female green turtles come onto these beaches to nest.  They do this three times in one season with a two week interval between each return. This results in approximately 30 000 nests being built on these beaches each year.

After the nesting season is over, the female turtle, who can weigh up to 150kg, swims away to far away oceans for three years, only to return again in the fourth year when the whole process repeats itself. The males frequent the breeding grounds but never leave the ocean.

Studies of their migration patterns reveal that these turtles, once exploited without restriction but now globally protected, cover most of the world on their travels. Some travel up to 65 000 km in a lifetime which normally lasts for about 80 years.

This past weekend, I was privileged to witness the nesting and hatching process. After a journey by car which lasted almost nine and a half hours, we arrived weary but excited at the resort. Tours to the beach were offered at 04h00 and 21h00 each day.

On the evening tour, the moon played the role of our tour guide’s assistant and helped to light the way, but in the early morning we held onto each other at times as we quietly approached the nests on the beach in torchlight and at times in pitch darkness.  The milky way sparkled above us, a reminder of how far away we were from light pollution of any kind. 

The female turtle digs out a nest 1/4 metre deep. Within this she digs another smaller hole also 1/4 metre deep, into which she lays approximately 100 eggs, golf ball like in size. Using her back flippers she slowly covers these eggs with sand, compressing it as she proceeds. Using her front flippers she then scoops up sand and scatters it behind her, leaving a camouflage nest by the time she heaves herself onto the flat of the beach and slowly makes her way back to the ocean. 

The eggs remain under the sand for 55 days, the temperature of the sand determining the sex of the hatchling. After it hatches, the baby turtle instinctively begins its journey into the ocean, its tiny flippers spinning like propellers. This is no easy task as predators such as foxes and seagulls have to be avoided. Inland lights, if there, can lure the baby in the wrong direction. Once in the sea, the baby turtles are often eaten by fish or caught in nets. There is no parental care. Only 1 in every 1000 babies makes it to maturity. 

Most amazing is the fact that once the female turtle reaches maturity she returns to lay her eggs on the very beach on which she was born!

Ras Al Jinz is a special place.

Despite the fact that sea turtles spend almost all of their lives submerged, they must breathe air to obtain the oxygen required for the demands of different activities. The breath is very important to the sea turtle. I too, wish to pay more attention to mine.

The speed of everyday physical and virtual life exists. There is however, also a need for periods of slow pace. Each has its time and place.

I am not yet able to fully verbalize what I was privileged to experience. I am reminded, however, that the shadows of my being are often poorly lit and that I need others on my life’s journey. Hiding in these shadows are mysteries and scenes of creativity. Some occur unattended, but every now and again awareness allows us to participate fully. 

The hatchlings of my experiences are precious.

What I saw requires time to fully impact me. There is no haste. I am in no hurry; neither was she. Each step had its moment for those who cared to see.